Goodbye Sugar Day One: Why Am I Doing This?
Yesterday was Easter Sunday. I went with my fiancé to his family’s ginormous Easter Extravaganza. Family came from all over the country and even out of the country to make it a jam packed, fun filled day! Everyone brought a dish to share (besides us – as we forgot our contribution at home and didn’t realize until after an hour of driving and were seven minutes away from the celebration). There were delicious potatoes, ham, and plenty of sugary sweets.
As I went around the tables and gathered my spoils of the day, I noticed I had kept getting more and more of the sweet stuff. Most adults indulged in the goodies, but I kept returning for more sweets and not the good foods. Granted it was Easter and holidays are when people splurge, but I do this constantly. When I get home from work I will often turn to sugary cereal or ice cream routinely. I noticed that don’t do this with anything else, only the foods with a lot of sugar in it.
Something I’ve realized over the years is that I always turn to sugar over any other food. I have honestly sat down and eaten an entire gallon of ice cream before. No sugar is safe in my house. Marshmallows get devoured, peanut butter lasts about a day, candy doesn’t stand a chance. Many people always comment on my ability to never get sick of sugar – fore many of adults can only do one piece of cake where I could eat the whole damn thing!
I love health and nutrition and have tracked my calories/food intake in MyFitness Pal for years. I used it to help my get down to 120ish pounds and I thought that counting calories was all I had to do. Everyone said I never have to worry about the food I eat because “You’re skinny!” But I started to look at the macros I ate in detail and was not happy with what I found. I almost ALWAYS ate far over 80grams of sugar a day! Most days were around 80grams! Some of it is fruit, but a lot of it is candy and other sweets with added sugar. The recommended amount of sugar per day for a woman my age is under 40grams. It’s alarming to think about how much more sugar my body is having per day!
I have thought about how sugar impacts me for a long, long time now and have been in denial about it. I know it spikes my energy for short bursts and how seemingly manic in behavior I can be if I have too much. I have decided to take on a 55 day reduced-sugar challenge. During this time, I’ll be keeping my sugar intake around/below 40 grams a day. In other words, cutting my sugar intake by more than half. I will be eating about three servings of fruit per day to get me to my 40 grams and trying to avoid candy and other sugary goodies my body shouldn’t have.
I’m doing this for my health and not to lose weight or anything to alter my appearance. I am happy with me, I am doing this so I don’t keep raising my chances at being diagnosed with some disease due to my sugar addition. I know I certainly get more moody when I am “wired” on sugar. Since this happens often, I want to see if I level out in moodiness and see how my mood fluctuates/how I feel after kicking the sugar addiction.
